When the entire family cried

Last Friday, when I was at work I received a call from Ma who was at home. Her voice trembling and heavy, she began the conversation with “I called you to convey a bad news” and my mind went into thinking of a million possibilities in a nano second. After a small pause, she broke into uncontrollable flow of tears, when she told me that one of the bird babies was no more. I was too stupefied to react. She continued to tell me how it all happened… The cage was in the balcony as usual. The first two bird babies had begun coming out of the pot on their own and roaming about. One of them (let’s call it BB) was out of the pot and sitting at the edge of the cage. A pigeon had come to our balcony, attacked BB by penetrating its beak into the cage and grabbing hold of BB’s neck. It brutally pecked all over the neck and let no trace of its head. When my domestic help had entered the balcony for her regular cleaning work, she spotted the headless bird with its body inside the cage and the pigeon trying to pull its remains out…. The pigeon flew away on seeing her. But the damage was done and we lost our li’l baby.

I tried to appear very calm and controlled to console Ma. I then called Abbas and tears came flooding down my eyes as I narrated him what had happened. It was his turn now to play the that’s-okay-tears-wont-bring-it-back-calm-down role that I played to Ma…

In the evening, when I told Mantam about this, I didn’t know how they would react. They had never known about death. They asked me questions as to how it happened. Mannu was furious with the pegion and asked me not to keep food for pigeons any more in the balcony. Tammu asked me where the bird was now… I said that M aunty (domestic help) took it with her. And then she asked me if M aunty was taking it to the doctor to heal it. It was excruciating to tell them the truth but I did. I told them that BB was never to come back again.

Tammu shed buckets of tears for Mannu to follow suit. She desperately prayed to God to send BB back to her. The way she cried was heart wrenching. All I could say to console them was to pray to God for Potli to lay eggs soon, so that BB would come to us as a new born.

I also forgot to mention that, we gave away the white pair of birds – Ghotla Ghotla for there were constantly trying to harm the babies by entering the pot. The youngest one was brutally attacked but it being strong survived twice. After Ghotla Ghotli’s exit, the chicks had begun coming out fearless. Who knew that an external predator would bring this fate to the chicks?

That morning, when I was watering the plants, I had noticed BB sitting down in the cage. I admired it’s beauty and made a mental note to click a picture in the evening. BB was entirely different from the rest of her siblings. It was stagnant for most of the time while other babies tried to flutter their wings and learn to take flight. It’s lethargy cost it’s life. Had it moved when the pigeon approached…..

RIP BB!

A pic of BB. The right most one with a blackish body is was BB.

On Public Demand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dunno where to begin

Dunno where to begin from…

Last time I wrote a post, I thought I had come back.. But then I disappeared again. I wished to post daily, had a million things to say, a billion thoughts to jot down but the situations were such that I wasn’t able to sit peacefully in a place for the fingers to obey the mind and collectively draft a post! Life at work has been hectic. On the home front too, our home PC put its foot down with the load of data on it and refused to respond at the desired speed. A single mouse click would reflect its reaction only when one was almost about to doze off in anticipation. We were planning to buy a laptop for a long time now coz the desktop is placed very close to our TV. And since Ma is here, our TV rests only when Ma rests. And working on the desktop would imply processing the noise of TV along Ma’s constant commentary on updates around the world. Okay, to the cut the story short, we finally bought a laptop. It’s white in colour and we have christened her Whitey. It’s a ‘she’ alright!!! After Bulu and Kaalu, we wanted a lady at home.

Another update that I haven’t yet disclosed in the blog is a BIG news. Hold your breath folks! For I am formally announcing that Abbas and I have become grandparents! Hurrray!!! I was almost in tears when I saw the first pair of twins on Friday. Another one was born yesterday. Can you believe it? Our Potla and Potli are parents of a tiny bunch if trio. Potli is still busy hatching another 3 eggs simultaneously taking care of the new borns. On the other hand, Ghotli has been moving in and out of her assigned breeding pot. She was sitting in it for long hours and finally laid a single egg. Ever since she popped the egg out, she is hardly seen inside the pot. She is mostly seen outside flirting with Potla who is bravely making use of the opportunity while his partner is stagnant in her pot. We are guessing that Ghotli’s egg is not going hatch L Well, for now all we pray is for the babies to grow hale and healthy.

Abbas is now hoping for Kaalu and Whitey to breed so that we would save a lot on electronic gadgets, we might as well mint money!! 🙄 Yeah, he is known for building castles in the air 😀

To end the post with, quoting a conversation between Ma and Abbas before Ghotli laid her precious egg.

Ma: Ghotli will lay eggs very soon, I’m damn sure about it.

Abbas: How can you be so sure Ma? Did you see them doing it?

Ma: (Startled at such a straight forward question) Aami bolte parbo na! (I can’t say that)

Abbas: Then how can you say that? Did you see anything?

Ma: Jaa to ekhan theke…(‘Go away from here’, while blushing to beetroot red)

Abbas: Why are you shy now? Answer with a ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ na?

Ma: YES!!!

 

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